Facing a state mandate to throttle water use amid a prolonged drought, the utility serving Lake Elsinore and surrounding communities is proposing major rate spikes for supplying water over the next two years.

Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District directors are scheduled to hold a public hearing over the proposal Thursday, July 23. The meeting will start at 4 p.m. in the district board room, 31315 Chaney St.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s order requiring California’s water providers to reduce consumption 25 percent by February is the driving factor in proposing revisions to the district’s rate structure so it penalizes those who overuse, said the agency’s legislative affairs director, Greg Morrison. Elsinore Valley provides water and sewer service to more than 133,000 customers from northern Murrieta to Horsethief Canyon in the Temescal Valley area.

“The bottom line is outdoor irrigation habits need to change and more accurately represent the semi-arid climate that we live in here,” Morrison said.

Under normal circumstances, Morrison said, the district would be looking at a 4 1/2 percent increase across the board within a two-year budget cycle concluding in June 2017. But, with the district facing fines of $10,000 per day if it fails to meet the February deadline, rates must be escalated and penalties stiffened.

Elsinore Valley instituted a tiered-system several years ago that rewards low water users with cheaper water and while making high water uses pay more. While everybody will share in the burden under the newly proposed system, water gluttons would pay more dearly.

The proposed system would slightly reduce baseline water-use rates, but the monthly charge based on water meter size would go up sharply. Moreover, customers would be assessed a monthly drought surcharge based on what stage of drought has been declared. A Stage 4 alert is now in effect, which would result in a monthly surcharge of $2.09 per 100 cubic feet used.

Now, households with efficient irrigation use pay $2.85 per 100 cubic feet and $16.58 per month for a 3/4-inch meter. The revised rate structure would result in that customer paying $2.75 per 100 cubic feet and $21.08 per month for a 3/4-inch meter, from Aug. 1 through June 30, 2016. From July 1 through June 30, 2017, the standard water rate would go up 2 cents and the meter charge 19 cents.

However, the surcharge would drastically escalate bills and heavy water users could be penalized further, depending on how much they go over their budget. Budgets are calculated based on each individual using 55 gallons per day and the number of people in a household. The effect on the average customer would be a 27 percent increase in their monthly bill, according to Morrison’s calculation.

Ironically, the district has exceeded a previous legislative mandate to reduce water use 20 percent by the year 2020, so meeting the new demand necessitates harsher measures, Morrison said.

“Our customers over the last 15 years have done a great job of converting to drought-tolerant landscaping and using more efficient (practices) that have reduced usage dramatically,” Morrison said.

“But in order to meet these state-mandated requirements, if somebody goes over their water budget ... they’re going to pay huge penalties in their rates for doing that. That’s basically to get them to reduce their outdoor usage dramatically to the point where it starts seriously stressing their landscaping.”

Elsinore Valley and other districts that had significantly reduced water use had sought some relief from the new demands but were rebuffed, board President Phil Williams said.

“We really stepped up and were ahead of the game, and the governor comes in and says, ‘I don’t care what you did for me yesterday, what can you do for me today?” Williams said. “In essence, they’re asking our customers to cut back 50 percent, and I feel it’s totally unfair.”

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